Panasonic

Panasonic has developed new millimetre-wave technologies that can separately detect cars, pedestrians and bicycles, paving the way for the development of safety systems that can be used to avoid accidents occurring at intersections.

The high precision, wide field of view millimetre-wave technologies are capable of separately detecting cars, pedestrians and bicycles in less than 0.1 seconds, provided they are separated by 20cm.

These technologies will be applied to 79GHz radar and used in detection sensors to avoid accidents, thereby accelerating the adoption of advanced safety support systems.

Millimetre-wave radar can detect pedestrians and vehicles in night time as well as bad weather conditions.

Panasonic’s new technologies have optimised the detection accuracy of the radar, in order to help it help detect cars, bicycles and pedestrians that are separated by a distance of 20cm at a speed of less than 0.1 seconds.

These technologies also support the operation of multiple millimetre radars and enable a wider field-of-view (FOV) system, which together offer greater flexibility for installation at intersections.

By applying unique coding technologies to millimetre-wave radar, it is able to detect vehicles, bicycles, and slow-moving pedestrians 2.5 times more accurately, compared to previous models of the millimetre-wave radar.

"Millimetre-wave radar can detect pedestrians and vehicles in night time as well as bad weather conditions."

For the project, Panasonic has developed and incorporated multi-dimensional electrical scanning technology and the orthogonal complementary coded modulation technology.

Multi-dimensional electrical scanning technology is capable of rapid location sensing and maintains a high degree of sensitivity for detection of pedestrians by the suppressing noise due to reflections from metallic vehicles.

The orthogonal complementary coded modulation technology realises both high resolution and wide FOV simultaneously.

The company has developed the new radar technology as the part of ‘Research and Development Project for Expansion of Radio Spectrum Resources’, which is supported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan.

Panasonic holds 27 patents in Japan and 14 patents overseas including pending applications on the new radar technology.

Image: Panasonic’s millimetre-wave radar technology helps detect vehicles, bicycles, and slow moving pedestrians 2.5 times more accurately, compared to previous models. Photo: courtesy of Panasonic Corporation.